The Nation Newspaper

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  • Nigerian legislators: Power for its own sake?

    Nigerian legislators: Power for its own sake?

    The past six weeks have had the Nigerian Senate being the center of public discourse. It started with the Senator Akpabio Vs Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uguaghan drama during a plenary session. Like wild fire during the hamattan, the altercation seems to have spiraled out of control. There have been accusations and counter accusations. The senate directed the Ethics and Privileges Committee to investigate the case of gross misconduct by Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan.

    Their verdict was a six-month suspension of Senator Akpoti Uduaghan, barring her from the National assembly, suspending her salaries and that of her aides and removing her security. According to the senate leadership,  “Let it be unequivocally stated that Senator Uduaghan was suspended solely for her persistent act of misconduct and disregard for the Senate Standing Order.

    Senator Akpoti Uduaghan had made several allegations bordering on sexual harassment against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio to the media both locally and internationally. She took her case to the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) some weeks back. The Chairperson of the House Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development, Kafilat Ogbara, was equally at IPU and pushed that the claims made by Akpoti-Uduaghan at the United Nations event that she was suspended for raising allegations of sexual harassment against Senate President Godswill Akpabio was untrue.

    Kafilat Ogbara as the House Committee  Chairperson on Women and Social Development was representing the  National Assembly to present a response to Akpoti-Uduaghan’s speech  at the 69th session of the United Nations Commission on the status of women was in her words, “In response to the call by the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Right Honorable Tulia Ackson to hear both sides of the matter, I have received a letter from the Nigerian Senate in my capacity as Chairman of the House Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development of our parliament in Nigeria and the parliamentarian representing Nigeria at this conference,” she stated.

    Nigerians and the world eagerly await the intervention of the IPU on this issue. Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan had gone to some foreign cable news media to tell her story before coming back to the country. In the meantime, the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions hearing on a fresh petition submitted by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan against Senate President Godswill Akpabio ended in chaos as Senator Nwebonyi and Oby Ezekwesili exchanged words.

    The Senator Nwebonyi had since the Senators Akpabio Vs Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan seems like a spokesperson of the Senate President given his media rounds making some allegations against Senator Natasha. It was therefore not surprising that the Committee sitting ended in chaos given the verbal exchanges between him and Oby Ezekwesili. The trigger seems to have  been his being shouted at, to ‘shut up’ after he seemingly interrupted  the process. They then went on with invectives at each other to the utter outrage of the whole country. The Senator ‘assured’ a highly accomplished Oby Ezekwesili that, “you can never be a senator”.

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    The Senator Natasha Vs Senator Akpabio issue has so engulfed the political space that it is the most written about national issue in the last six weeks. It has even been linked to the chaotic ‘recall attempts’ of a senator Natasha that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the processes flawed and therefore not valid. An Abuja Federal High Court  presided over by Justice Binta Nyako  had on Friday barred parties in the suit filed by suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan against the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio and three others from granting press interviews on issues relating to the case.

    No matter the merits of the cases by both parties, the Roundtable conversation feels that the Nigerian 10th senate has not lived up to expectations. The Nigerian people would be better served that the senate shines through as the representatives of the people, as the second tripod of the democracy we practice that must have the people and service to them as the focal point of their tenure in the national assembly. Make no mistakes about it, politics especially with legislators is not a walk in the park, there must be arguments, debates, lobbying, points of disagreement etc., but the grass which symbolically is the people must not be allowed to suffer whle the ‘elephants’ in the parliament ‘fight’.

    Nigeria has been going through socio-economic problems over the years. More than 134million Nigerians live in multi-dimensional poverty, more than 20millions Nigerian children are out of school in what is seen as a global highest in a seemingly ‘peaceful’ country. There is high unemployment, high maternal and child mortality, high insecurity, low productivity and other high indices of poverty and underdevelopment.

    On the other hand, Nigerian legislators are some of the most highly paid parliamentarians in the entire globe. They reek of luxury, power and influence. However, their influence is not always about the people they represent. It is always almost about themselves, their ego and their comfort. There is often zero allegiance to the voters who are the mandate givers in cases of real elections.

    The question is, given the below average performances of most government parastatals, ministries and agencies that are supposed to deliver service to the people, where is the legislative oversight functions? We understand some of the perfunctory committee ‘sittings over public petitions’ , but what has changed? How effectively functional is the legislative oversight functions? Why do we often hear of ‘juicy committees’? What are the implications of tagging some committees ‘juicy’?

    Most legislators are so self –centered that they only remember their constituencies during elections only. Once they access power, they run to cities and forget the constituents.  Ironically, most of them feed fat on so-called ‘constituency projects’ that really defy any valid explanations. This often turns out to be political smokescreens.  When Nigerian politicians fully understand the meaning of their legislative duties, development would be accelerated in the country. They would understand their core duties, be more committed to the people who voted them in, be more accountable and take joy in serving the people rather than the present grandstanding and ego-trips that create chaos and are very distractive.

    The issue remains that most politicians who vie for seats in Nigeria do so not as a result of any sense of service but to acquire power for its own sake and for personal reasons. Most have no vision, no agenda or commitment to the general good. The fact that a Senator Elisha Abbo notorious for assaulting a woman in a sex toy shop suddenly jumps out to narrate his experience with a senator Akpabio few weeks after the Senator Akpabio Vs Senator Natasha issue gained national attention is almost laughable.

    While it is his right to speak what he wants us to believe is his own truth, it is apposite to remind him that as a Senator representing Adamawa North in the Senate, his scandalous behaviour then adds to the litany of toxic masculinity and official abuse of power by politicians in Nigeria. His appearance at the Ethics and privileges Committee then regarding his case was scandalous too as it ended in chaos too.

    A senator Elisha Abbo might or might not be speaking the truth of his encounter with the Senate President before he was sacked by the courts but the Roundtable sees his sudden media engagements as merely playing politics. How has he atoned for the scandal that brought him notoriety?  What legacies did he live for his senatorial district? What was the equity and fairness bills he pushed as a senator? What will a senator Elisha Abbo be remembered for?

    Taking advantage of political situations to leverage public approval or sympathy cannot earn anyone garlands. It amounts to speaking  from both sides of the mouth for one who has a history of gender injustice to suddenly want to leverage on the present issue at the senate to launder an image immersed in a scandal he has not shown serious remorse for rather than mere politicking.

    Again on the senate floor, as the senate seemingly debated on the need for late Prof. Humphrey Nwosu to be honoured post-humously, it was interesting to watch  a senator like Adams Oshiomole, who rode on the back of Nigerian workers to national prominence and political gains and visibility argue that a Prof. Nwosu, who as a worker, gave the country the freest, fairest and most credible election ever did not deserve to be honoured, because, in his words, “Don’t accept a job you cannot do and someone must have the courage to do something” all in reference to the late NEC chairman.

    For an Oshiomole, a Prof. Nwosu was a coward. Being a senator, the Roundtable conversation wants an Oshiomole to understand what an award means. It is not a canonization of any human. It is rather recognition of a certain level of diligence, excellence, commitment, sometimes patriotism and a level of integrity. Politics must not dilute the meaning of diligence, integrity and a sense of patriotism lest our children begin to seek heroes from other lands. Going round media houses trying to justify his dishonouring a man who though fallible and imperfect gave the country the best election ever, told his story before he died and acknowledged globally as a man of integrity is just a tad too disappointing.

    Being a national legislator is not just about your constituency, it is a national service that seeks to work for the progress and unity of the country. Legislators must like Ceasar’s wife be, ‘above reproach’ especially in their discharge of their legislative duties in or out of the chambers. Discipline and decorum and a sense of history, equity and justice must be keys. There must be no descent to comic distractions. It is a serious business of national importance.

    • The dialogue continues…

  • Olunloyo: Exit of Ibadan’s son of the soil

    Olunloyo: Exit of Ibadan’s son of the soil

    ‘It is time for the son of the soil to rule. Let our son do it. Let Bola Ige return to his town. An Ibadan man should be governor of Oyo.’

    That was how Alhaji Busari Oloyede Adelakun, the Ejioku-born strongman of Ibadan politics in the Second Republic and Chairman of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in Ibadan/Ibarapa District, canvassed for a power shift to the ancient city in 1983.

    He merely voiced the collective opinion of the city’s political elite, who nursed grudges against their in-law, fork-tongued Cicero of Esa-Oke in the old Oyo State and currently in Osun State.

    Key Ibadan politicians, including the National Chairman of the party and Seriki of Ibadan, Chief Adisa Akinloye; the Attorney-General and Justice Minister, Chief Richard Akinjide; a future kingmaker in the ancient city’s politics, Chief Lamidi Adedibu, and the then Iyalode of Ibadan, Chief Wuraola Esan, nodded affirmatively.

    The setting was the Oyo Town Hall. ‘E je k’omo ti’a naa o se e’ (Let our son too become governor). Consequently, this became a popular slogan among Ibadan folks, the justification being the sheer numerical strength and bloc vote of the ancient city that could not be rivaled by any other zone.

    Many Oyo and Ibarapa leaders aligned with the view because Ibadan had taproots in the districts. The history of Ibadan shows that many of its leaders and holders of Baale, Balogun, Basorun, and Aare Ona Kankanfo titles came from traditional Oyo and Osun towns: Oyo, Iseyin, Iwo, Ogbomoso, among others.

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    The beneficiary of the novel recruitment strategy, which had a semblance of racial prejudice in the days of hot politics, was Dr. Victor Omololu Olunloyo of the NPN. He succeeded Chief Bola Ige of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) in the 1983 polls. Both men had served as commissioners in the state before politics put them in different camps.

    Between then and now, seven governors – Olunloyo, Kolapo Ishola, Lam Adesina, Rashidi Ladoja, Adebayo Alao-Akala, Abiola Ajimobi, and Seyi Makinde – have occupied the Oyo State Government House at Agodi in Ibadan. Six are from Ibadan, but only one came from outside of the city. The trend may continue in the future.

    But the son-of-the–soil euphoria did not last. Three months after assuming office, Governor Olunloyo was toppled by the military after the coup that brought General Muhammadu Buhari to power. Olunloyo never bounced back to political relevance. 

    At the twilight of his life, he was full of reminiscences, advising the younger ones to see power as ephemeral, even though alluring and sweet.

    Olunloyo is remembered as a governor, but it should be noted that he had been a household name since his youth. What catapulted him to stardom was his high intellectual status. Olunloyo was in the mould of a genius: intelligent, resourceful, competent, and effective. He made genuine contributions to the educational, socio-economic and political development of his state as a teacher, administrator and public servant before he became governor.

    He was among the most brilliant students in all the schools he attended. At 27, he capped his intellectual pursuit with a doctorate in Mathematics at St. Andrews University in the United Kingdom (UK) in 1961. He returned home to teach, first at the University of Ibadan (UI) and later at the then University of Ife (UnIfe), now Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), where he became the Head of Department at 28.

    In the First Republic, the intellectual society was polarised by antagonistic political leanings. While the likes of Professors Hezekiah Oluwasanmi, Samuel Aluko, C. O. Taiwo, Saburi Biobaku, and Akin Mabogunje gravitated towards the progressive camp, the scholars of conservative ideology supported other political ideals. Nearly all the bright minds of that era took sides in the divisive political struggles.

    As the two camps in the Western Region ran into turbulence and emergency rule was imposed, the dons offered intellectual support to the warring camps.

    The list of emergency commissioners was carefully selected. The interim cabinet comprised dons, politicians, public servants, and traditional rulers who wanted Premier Ladoke Akintola back in office after six months. That was the plan of the Tafawa Balewa Government. Olunloyo made the list.

    It was his first direct involvement in governance. As he reminisced later, the leaders of the Western Region who went their separate ways meant well for the region. However, the bone of contention was their approaches, which did not align with each other. He also discovered that Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was financially incorruptible and non-flamboyant. When he visited his office at Ribadu Road in Ikoyi, Olunloyo likened it to the office of a school headmaster – an austere room – reminiscent of when Balewa was in the teaching profession.

    The regional crisis was mismanaged. Its climax was the rigging of the 1965 regional assembly elections. Olunloyo watched from his post at the University of Ife when the “Wild, Wild West” was in flames. In the melee, the coup plotters killed the principal actors and drove their followers away. Afterwards, a counter-coup followed.

    Already a promising lecturer and public intellectual, Olunloyo became a commissioner under Military Governor Adeyinka Adebayo. In the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, the lot fell on him to resolve the Alaafin of Oyo succession crisis, which his predecessor, Chief B. A. Ajayi, could not resolve. There was an opposition to the candidature of Prince Lamidi Adeyemi by Action Group (AG) sympathisers who orchestrated the removal of his father, Oba Adeniran Adeyemi, from office. They preferred Sanda Ladepo.But Olunloyo stood his ground, based on the facts available to him, and offered the correct advice to the governor on Adeyemi’s eligibility and suitability. The prince was thus crowned the king. It was not surprising that the Iku Baba Yeye later installed Olunloyo the Balogun of Oyo.

    Olunloyo also shone brilliantly as Commissioner for Education. He fortified the school inspection system, visiting many public schools unannounced to assess the quality of teaching and teachers, examining school infrastructure and the entire teaching and learning environment.

    Olunloyo had the privilege of building two polytechnics – Ibadan and Kwara – from their foundations as rector. The two institutions have played significant roles in the educational, economic, and technological development of the country.

    It must be noted that throughout his public service career, Olunloyo shunned corruption, avarice and inordinate pursuit of materialism. He was a man of contentment. He was also blunt. When Awolowo, who appreciated his sheer brilliance and intellectual exploits, beckoned on him to join his party, Olunloyo declined. He said Awo was too honest and that major actors, particularly in the North, would not support him because he was highly inflexible.

    The crowning of his involvement in public service was his election as governor. In 1979, Ibadan played a prominent role in Ige’s victory, although Akinjide, an indigene, was his rival at the poll. The election marked a significant shift in political calculation because from 1951 to 1962, the city tilted towards Zik’s National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), and between 1962 and 1966, gravitated towards Akintola’s Nigeria National Democratic Party (NNDP), which forcefully gained control.

    As major political actors, particularly Adelakun, who served as Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, and later, Health, deserted the UPN, Ibadan turned its back on Awolowo once again. The shift in political allegiance also fitted into the plan by NPN’s National Chairman Akinloye to win Oyo for the party as a stepping stone for bidding for the 1983 presidential ticket. But this never happened.

    Although a nominal party member, Olunloyo was catapulted to the front burner of the struggle for Agodi Government House. He got the governorship ticket, not by the grace of deep pocket, but because the NPN hawks wanted a credible person on the ballot.

    NPN wanted Oyo badly. Akinloye also wanted to prove that he was in control of Ibadan politics, through Adelakun, in the post-Adegoke Adelabu era.  The campaign was hot. It was marked by propaganda and thuggery. It was not easy to convince the masses of Ibadan. Therefore, Adelakun branded Awolowo an enemy of the city. He accused the UPN leader of recommending Ajayi from Ekiti, Bola Ige from Ijesa, Dauda Adegbenro from Egba, and Bisi Onabanjo from Ijebu as commissioners in the military government but neglected Ibadan, even though Emmanuel Alayande was around.

    At the close of the poll, the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) declared Olunloyo winner. Hell was let loose. In some towns, houses and other properties of NPN stalwarts were destroyed. But the poll was affirmed by the Supreme Court, though with a dissenting judgment.

    In the saddle, Olunloyo wanted to run a clean government, despite the flawed election that brought him to power. He appointed competent party chieftains and sympathisers as commissioners. But he rejected Adelakun’s request to make him a commissioner, saying he did not measure up in terms of education. Olunloyo directed Adelakun to seek an appointment with President Shehu Shagari. A crisis was brewing in Oyo NPN.

     Olunloyo announced that the past administration would be probed. He also turned his attention to the Ibadan Municipal Council, firing salvos at the chairman, Oye Olunloyo, and reiterating his plan to probe its finances.

    Reports and cartoons of those days also depicted a vibrant and excited governor who momentarily behaved in unusual ways while conducting state affairs. He was serious-minded but humorous. He was goal-oriented, but he faced distractions from party elements. Since he loathed the embezzlement of public funds, many civil servants would have run into problems over time.

    Olunloyo would have been a good governor, nevertheless, if the military had not sacked the civilian authorities.

    After the coup, he was arrested, like other notable politicians. The former men of power from UPN and NPN were dumped at Iyaganku Police Station in Ibadan preparatory to their movement to Kirikiri and Ikoyi prisons in Lagos. Olunloyo sighted Ige and greeted him. When the Black Maria that was to convey them came and soldiers asked them to enter one by one, he respectfully requested Ige to enter the vehicle before him, saying: “Egbon (my elder brother), you are to enter first because you are my senior in this thing. After all, I spent only three months while you spent four years.”

    Nothing incriminating was found against Olunloyo, unlike Senator Barkin Zuwo, governor of Kano State for three months, who protested his harassment by the military, saying the N4 million for which he was arrested was government money found in Government House.

    There is a need to immortalise Olunloyo, not because he was governor but because in the previous positions he held, he displayed patriotism, probity, integrity, and rectitude.

  • Summary of Facts (RAMADAN)

    Summary of Facts (RAMADAN)

    Preamble

    At no time in the life of man can the true nature of human existence more manifest than in Ramadan. It is in that sacred month that Muslims reflect mostly on the purpose of their existence on earth. Some people fasted actively last year but are no more today. Some put their feet at the door step of Ramadan this year but never entered it. Some fell by the way side along the line. Some fasted with absolute faith in Allah and confidence in making use of the lessons of Ramadan. Some joined the spiritual train with no idea of their destination in the month.

    Segments of Ramadan

    At the beginning of this sacred month, an analysis was done in this column classifying the 30 or 29 days of Ramadan into three segments. The first segment was said to contain the first ten days of the month during which the blessings of Allah came to the faithful Muslims freely and in abundance. Except for meeting that segment with faith and good intention, there was no working for it. That segment ended after 10 days paving way for the second segment that began on the 11th day of Ramadan.

    During the 10-day period of the second segment, most fasting Muslims intensified worship (Ibadah) by spending their days and nights seeking Allah’s forgiveness and by chanting Istighfar. But such forgiveness was neither automatic nor free. Usually, conditions were attached to it. One of such conditions was for every fasting Muslims to admit his/her misdeeds and repent of them. The second was to voluntarily and genuinely seek forgiveness. And the third condition was to resolve never to return to such misdeeds again. To seek Allah’s forgiveness during the month of Ramadan, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was reported to have said that “if you want to speak with Allah, make your request on prostration. And if you want Allah to speak to you recite the Qur’an”. No one who abided by the above conditions and followed it scrupulously would ever be disappointed. Allah is both promising and fulfilling. He never reneges on His promise. In Qur’an 2:186 He promises thus: “…when my servants ask you (Prophet Muhammad) about me, tell them that I am very close to them. I answer the prayers of whoever seeks my favour if he seeks from me (without any intermediary). So, let them expect my favourable response and trust in me so that they may be rightly guided”

    Midway Ramadan

    Those second ten days were not just to consolidate on the blessings of the first ten days, they were also to prepare the fasting Muslims for the last ten days when they are expected to be fully liberated from the evil machinations of any Satanic forces.

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    Human life is not measured by the time or manner of his or her death. In Islam, death is neither the consequence of sin nor the repercussion of ignorance. There are instances when the sinless dies and the sinful lives. There are also instances when the learned dies while the ignorant lives. The schedule of life and death is not in the custody of any human being. Death is a debt which every living being owes and must pay.

    Not even Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was spared of death or given a foreknowledge of it. Allah ordered him to say in the Q. 10:49 thus: “Say I have not the power to benefit or to harm myself except what Allah pleases. Unto every nation is a fixed term. When their terms expire, they cannot delay it by an hour nor can they bring it forth before its time”.

    This is a verse of the Qur’an which the ignorant ones have severally quoted and interpreted according to their whim. In their imagination, they want the Prophet to claim infallibility to enable them call him a liar.

    Nostalgia

    Some people dream but never live to realise their dreams. Some look but never see. It is only in the imagination of man that age should be a factor of death. We shall all die at our scheduled time. Therefore, whoever is privileged to pass through this year’s Ramadan successfully should endeavour to add spiritual value to his or her life and not diminish in faith after the sacred month. We shall all account for that value before Allah.

    Just a few days back this year’s Ramadan came to an end by the grace of Allah and we began to look back with nostalgia to the good things we have done in the sacred month. For instance, we shall remember that in no other month of Hijrah calendar is the role of Muslim women more pronounced than in Ramadan. Like in other months, they display the roles of wives, mothers as well as that of their husbands’ confidants. But more than in other months, they exhibit their religious dedication in Ramadan.

    Even as they assist their husbands financially in maintaining the homes, they still take care of those husbands as well as the children and relatives domestically. At the time of the day when the husbands are knocked out by fatigue arising from fasting, the wives are still busy in the kitchen preparing Iftar for the household. At the time in the night when some husbands are engaged in Tahajjud, or are snoring in bed, the wives are already up in the kitchen preparing the Sahur for the family.

    Some of these women are pregnant. Some are suckling their children. Some of them are knowledgeable enough to do the Tilawah (recitation of the Qur’an) like their husbands. Some are even rich enough to finance the home fully or partially.

    And, in all these activities, they never feel tired. Where and when they feel tired, they never show it. If any month has ever depicted the virtues of women, it is Ramadan and the women activities in it. If for the reason of their activities in Ramadan alone, they deserve tenderness and dignified treatment in the hands of their husbands.

    We shall also remember the role of our children in the month and then endeavour to ensure the continuity of those rewarding activities.

    Allah’s greatest gift

    Children are Allah’s greatest gift to man. Their presence in a house is blessing. Their contribution is immense. Those are children for you. They can play the role of teachers just as they can do that of students. They learn fast, they teach fast. They are a major security for parents in any given environment.

    Children play both temporal and spiritual roles in a matrimonial life. And with such roles, they sometimes create hope for humanity and sometimes, they signal despair. They are the greatest asset in the possession of parents in time of peace. They are also the greatest weapon for those parents against the forces of Satan.

    Because of their innocence, they pave way for God’s forgiveness and quick acceptance of prayers. And, most importantly, children guarantee the continuity of man’s existence on earth. It is only with them that the fulfillment of today’s promise is possible tomorrow.

    In the Qur’an, children are mentioned many times and most often with reverence. They are treated in that glorious book as a major issue in the life of man. As orphans, they do not only have a role to play, they also compel some adults to play a role relating to them.

    As heirs to their parents, they have substantial shares in inheritance. Muslim children are like cubs. They follow the footstep of their parents or guardians very closely. They are often with their parents during the five daily prayers. They watch their parents as the latter give charity to the poor. They accompany them to public lectures and Islamic social gatherings.

    And, in Ramadan, children are part of the Muslims’ total spiritual package. They wake up with them at night. They fast with them in the day. They break the fast with them at sunset. They join their parents at Tafsir and night lectures. They participate in Laylatul Qadr and in giving Zakatul Fitr to the poor. Who can substitute the role of children in a matrimonial home?

    In all the above mentioned activities, children are supposed to be encouraged. At the tender age of seven, they should be guided to fast even if for half a day. And when they reach the age of 10 they should be strengthened in faith and in religious deeds. They should be provided with necessities of life both on the temporal and spiritual grounds. With these, they will grow up to become the fulfillment of their parents’ dreams.

    Most children grow up as good or bad citizens by emulating their parents. A child is therefore what his parents make him. If advantage of Ramadan is not taken by Muslim parents to mould their children into good Muslims what other platform will be used? Your child is your sun. Make hay with it while it shines.

    Neighbours

    We shall also recall how we related to our neighbours, especially the non-Muslims among them in that month. In Islam, neighbours are as important as the next of kin. And, Islam attaches so much respect to them. According to Bukhari and Muslim, Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) was reported to have sworn by Allah three times saying: “he does not believe in Allah! He does not believe in Allah! He does not believe in Allah! And when he was asked who? He replied by saying: whoever creates fear in his neighbours atrociously”

    In another Hadith also reported by Bukhari and Muslim, the Prophet was quoted as saying that “Whoever believes in Allah and the last day let him be nice to his neighbours and respect his guests”

    In the month of Ramadan a good Muslim is expected to wear a new toga of sobriety and repentance. He doubles his good deeds to his neighbours, extending generosity to them and cultivating a new atmosphere of friendliness and trust with them. He genuinely gives them as much impression of love and brotherhood as he does with his consanguine relatives.

    It does not matter whether those neighbours are Muslims or non-Muslims. Neither does it matter whether they are tribesmen or non-natives. The Prophet did not discriminate in his Hadith when he was admonishing on neighbours. And that is the inalienable position of Islam on neighbourliness. Whoever, had quarreled with his neighbours before Ramadan, therefore, let him/her go and settle the quarrel.

    Besides abstaining from foods, drinks and sex, in the month of Ramadan, a good Muslim must mind his relationship with people around him, including neighbours. Fasting in the month of Ramadan cannot be taken in half measure. Whoever wants to receive full rewards for his religious activities in Ramadan should treat his neighbours well. And, when Ramadan is over, the good deeds must continue. Ramadan is not made a pillar of Islam by accident. Its purpose is to return man to the original state of purity in which he was created. That Allah entrusts the world to man is also not by accident. Allah consulted widely before entrusting this great responsibility to man when the latter volunteered to bear it. This much is revealed in Qur’an 33:71 thus: “We offered the trust (of the world) to the heavens; the earth and the mountains they all turned it down and were afraid of it. Man undertook to bear it but he has proved to be insincere and deceitful”. For man to re-examine himself, repent over his misdeeds and become redeemed, therefore, Allah brought Ramadan as a means of rescue.

    Needs and wants

    It is in the month of Ramadan that Muslims reconfirm NEEDS rather than WANTS as the necessities required for the sustenance of their lives. Muslims, by their faith and orientation, are not, ordinarily, given to WANTS. They are more concerned about NEEDS than WANTS. The reason for this is not far-fetched. With NEEDS come contentment and satisfaction while WANTS are the cause of greed and avarice.

    Allah, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, had provided the needs of every living creature even before its creation. But then, He (Allah) knew that of all those creatures man alone would go beyond NEEDS into the realm of WANTS. That was perhaps what informed the negative role which Satan assumed in the life of man shortly after the creation of Adam and Hawau.

    By introducing WANTS to man, what Satan did was to create a permanent job for himself in the life of man. Without WANTS the world would not have been what it is today. Blood would not have been shed. Money would not have been deified. Hatred would not have been known to man. And, man’s inhumanity to man would have been totally averted.

    The effect of WANTS first became known when Qabil (Cain), the first son of Adam preferred his brother’s wife to his. In the argument which ensued, Qabil (Cain) killed his brother Habil (Abel) and combined the latter’s wife with his. Thus, greed and avarice became ingredients of man’s culture. And WANTS rather than NEEDS became the domineering factor in the life of man. These are some of the anomalies in man that Ramadan comes to correct every year. You have witnessed this year’s Ramadan, hope you utilised your experience maximally. You don’t know whether or not you will have that opportunity again. Ramadan Karim in arrears!.

  • Could Trump’s Tariff put world in reverse gear?

    Could Trump’s Tariff put world in reverse gear?

    In the past couple of months, since the inauguration of President Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States of America (US), the world braced itself to the rhetoric of tariffs war that heralded the beginning of the Trump 2.0 administration. Subsequently, some days ago, President Trump converted rhetoric to action by rolling out a series of “reciprocal tariffs” across the globe, from the US neighbors, i.e. Mexico, Canada, Colombia, to the European Union Countries, and the United Kingdom, and more pointedly he placed the highest tariffs on China. President Trump did not spare US allies in the European Union, the Middle East, and Far East, including Jordan, India, Japan, and South Korea, who have shown unalloyed support for the US and also for President Trump over time.

     Trump is basically emulating the pre-2nd World War (WW2) global trade order, which became the precursor to WW2. With this dramatic trade tariff shift by the US, President Trump has triggered a global trade and investment disruption that will most likely reset global trade dynamics with concomitant effects on global supply chains, geopolitical, and socio-economic consequences.

     President Trump has basically gone to war with the world with his tariff offensive. Suffice it to say that President Trump stratified the various tariffs, which, according to him, are based on the reciprocity of the level of tariff, i.e., trade deficit or trade surplus as the case may be, between the US and other Countries. Of course, the understanding of trade deficit or trade surplus depends on how one sees the cup, “half full or half empty.”. Indeed, it appears that President Trump’s basis for going on with this tariff war is particularly based on the balance of trade of products, while ignoring the fact that there is a key component of global trade, which is “services”. The United States of America is the leading global beneficiary of global services trade, in which it is always in surplus to other Countries, and yet no Country has taken any adverse role against the US.

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     The scale and scope of the tariff is sweeping, even to the awe of some US citizens, including the US Congress, as they try to fathom how to proceed with the unravelling scenarios. This is especially so given that President Trump is using Executive Orders, thereby bypassing the constitutional requirement of legislation that should back such a far-reaching national economic policy. In the past couple of days, there have been protests by tens of thousands of citizens of the US, across almost all the States of the US, against President Trump’s Tariff policy

     Can tariffs really make America great again?

    There is a global consensus by economists, political strategists, and other thought leaders across the board that “in tariff wars there are no winners”. Already, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has stated that the US-China tariff war could slash global trade by 80%, especially given that the US and China (the two biggest economies in the world) account for 3% of world trade.  The DG, WTO also projected a 7% contraction of global GDP in 2025 based on Trump’s Tariff onslaught, which will essentially plunge the entire world into recession. This is in addition to other geo-political, environmental, and climate change dynamics that are already impacting the world in ways not experienced in recent human history.  Dr. Iweala’s position resonates with other global institutions like the World Bank, IMF, JP Morgan, etc. Indeed, this tariff war will also not be beneficial to the US, especially its citizens. The US stock market, as well as stock markets across Europe and the Far East, were plunging due to the uncertainties occasioned by this development.

     Within two days, the US Stock Market recorded the worst two days in US stock market history, when it lost about $6.6 trillion in value. The self-inflicted wounds are just the beginning. Critical stakeholders, including US businesses and economists, are raising concerns about the potential devastating impacts of the tariffs on jobs, including US jobs. For example, the American Soybean Association, through its President, Mr. Caleb Ragland, is already raising concerns that the tariff war will impact their market share and profitability.

     The US will certainly not be insulated from this tariff war, and the biggest victims of this tariff war will most likely be the US citizens.

     Canada Stands up to the Tariff War

    Canada has been consistently assertive on its readiness to counter all tariff escalations by President Trump, which is concerning given the close affinity and strong trade ties between the US and Canada before Trump 2.0.

     EU Finally Takes a Position

    Leaders of Europe, like the Danish Prime Minister, the UK Prime Minister, the outgoing and incoming German Chancellors, the President of France, and others have been taking hardline positions against the tariffs.  Two days ago, the EU countries reluctantly decided to implement countermeasures against Trump’s Tariffs by taking a position to apply a 25% tariff on the US, which could impact about 13.3 billion US Dollars’ worth of exports, with effect from the 15th of April, 2025. From the tariff framework of the EU, the tactic would particularly impact some US states that produce soybeans, Poultry, and motorcycles, which are among US’s major exports.

     However, the EU has suspended the countermeasures as Trump pauses the Tariff for 90 days. It is possible that President Trump is beginning to contemplate the consequences of his decision. Meanwhile, global markets immediately rose in response to the tariff pause, notwithstanding the uncertainties that continue.

     Trade dynamics will shift Eastwards

    Naturally, President Trump’s policy is redirecting global trade traffic from West to East. This is because President Trump has triggered a domino effect that could change the world trade order. Indeed, we have seen the overt and sublime shift of trade gears from West to East as the key drivers of trade, i.e., materials availability, cost, and availability of technology like AI, cost of production, more acceptable terms and conditions of trade, etc., will result in shifting alliances. The hostile rhetoric and actions of President Trump, including the Tariff slaps, will certainly cause forward-thinking countries to recalibrate their strategies to have a plan B and plan C, etc., at least for the next four years that Donald Trump will be in power.

     Accordingly, this could be the beginning of the end of West post-war globalization and the emergence of a new world trade order tilted more towards the East with better economic shock absorbers. Trump is overestimating his ability to maintain a chokehold on the world

     Some countries are already establishing free trade zones as safe trade (win-win-win) corridors

     China’s Response

    Expectedly, President Trump has made China the focal point of his global tariff war, Obviously, President Trump’s intention is to squeeze China into submission. But China has been preparing for Trump’s tariff war as it has been taking countermeasures to have economic shock absorbers in place to be able to weather the storm. China’s leadership has stated clearly that China will fight the tariff war to the finish, as can be seen by the retaliatory 84% Tariff in response to President Trump’s increase of China’s tariff to 145% three days ago.

     The days ahead are bleak for consumers of goods and services around the world, including US citizens who will feel the effects of the tariff in their pockets and livelihoods as an increase in inflation is imminent. Already one of Trump’s allies, Billionaire Elon Musk, has made a tacit cautionary remark about the need for a global free trade framework rather than the tariff war. It goes without too much saying that the tariff war will certainly backfire on the US. According to a US former Treasury Secretary, “the US is likely to slip into recession due to escalating tariffs – potentially costing 2 million jobs nationwide”, in the US. If that happens, it will be devastating for US economy.

      How ready is Africa?

    President Trump’s trade war is yet another wake-up call to Africans and their leaders to step up and face their realities. The withdrawal of aid by President Trump and the trade war will be a blessing to Africa when we step up the quality of governance across Africa. The beggarly way with which African Countries conduct themselves across strata of leadership and value chains, i.e., geo politics, resources management, economic growth and development, human capital and social development, security and safety, etc. MUST CHANGE and be undertaken from sovereign and strategic positions. WE MUST CHANGE OUR MINDSETS. We should not be crying as “victims” forever lest we remain the victims of our own actions or inactions forever.

     African Countries MUST address the fundamental issues of critical infrastructure deficit in terms of energy/power, and intermodal transportation, which are linked to energy as well. We must not just be productive, we must be competitive and self-sustainable. We must also deal with corruption. This sounds like a cliché, but that is the only way to prosperity.

     In conclusion, effectively and successfully navigating and outmaneuvering Trump 2.0 Tariffs strategy will be a function of building internal reliance and re-aligning global partnerships.

  • There was a country. How did we get here?

    There was a country. How did we get here?

    I still remember growing up  in  Ekiti, my own part of Nigeria when we did not have crude petroleum but had cocoa, palm oil, rubber and lots of hardwood timber which our regional government exported and the proceeds were spent on running the administration while a big part of it was saved against a rainy day. Some of the savings was used to support producer prices whenever the prices fell in the so-called world market as a result of over production.  Stability of producer price was necessary to encourage the farmers who produced the export produce. The marketing board that managed these savings was insulated as much as possible from political interference. It was the British colonial government that set this marketing board up and by the time we had party and responsible government in 1951, millions of pounds Sterling had accumulated as savings which the Awolowo government in the Western Region had access to from 1951 to 1959. Marketing boards were also set up for the eastern and northern regions of Nigeria but because those regions produced palm oil and palm kernel in the case of the East and groundnuts, cotton and hides and skins in the case of the North, they did not have the kind of money which cocoa brought into the coffers of the western Nigerian treasury.

    The year 1955 begins the period I am talking about when I was in my final year in primary school during the first year of the Action Group’s government’s free and compulsory primary school education scheme. My set moved from standard four to join with those in standard five to transit to primary six and the number of years spent in primary school was shortened from 10 years to eight years. There was fear that standards will be lowered but nothing of such happened and my set took entrance examinations to various secondary schools in the Western Region preparatory to starting in form one in January 1956.

    Most of us only took entrance examinations to schools in the Western Region. Certainly not to Lagos! None of our teachers encouraged us to do so because of what was said to be the corrupting influence of the coastal city. And our parents would not hear of us going to Benin and Warri provinces, part of Western Region for fear of the distance and differences in languages. There were a few intrepid ones who braved going there.

    It was the best of times.  We were all enjoying heavenly paradise here in Ekiti and the Western Region generally and in the country as a whole. One could travel to anywhere without molestation by the police or armed robbers and Fulani herders minded their own business as we did ours. Everything was good. We were not rich neither were we poor.  During our holidays, we joined our parents on the farms and those whose parents were traders hawked their wares on the street.

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    Running family economies was a joint program of parents, children, cousins and all kinds of relations with everybody making a contribution. The family unit was highly valued and our parents made sure they kept a tight hold on everyone and made sure they knew what was going on in everybody’s life. They also drummed into our ears about the importance of having a good name. A good name is better than diamonds and gold, they would say. Honour was more important than wealth. 

    My father didn’t mind if I fought in school as long as I won. You were not permitted to come home crying that a classmate of about the same age as yourself beat you up. We only had new clothes at Christmas and new year. If you were reasonably well-off, you got a pair of shoes as a bargain. This puritanical life style was embraced by everybody that I knew.  Our bigger and older brothers were in high schools and some were even in universities at home and abroad and our parents made us realise if we too worked hard and read our books, we too will go to high schools and reach the top. There was little career counselling; all we were told is read your books. Even when we were in secondary school, there was little or no career counselling apart from going to university to earn degrees in English, History, Geography, Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Mathematics and become teachers. It was grand being teachers in those days especially graduate teachers owning cars. Those who studied Medicine were guided into it by the “Hands of God“. It was not until later that we learnt that one could study Law, Accountancy, Engineering, Insurance and Finance. Going into the military or police was a no go area.

    In spite of the limitations of our rural environment, we did well. Our peasant upbringing endowed us with all that was honest and honourable. We never stole; we never embezzled or envied any one. We were satisfied with whatever it pleased the Almighty God to put in our hands in terms of shelter and ability to send our children to school like our parents did. We did not know anyone who became rich by being a civil servant.

    Politics when it entered our part of Nigeria was a call to serve not to eat. The only rich people we knew were contractors and cocoa merchants. We thought our country, or shall I say our region, will regenerate itself and our children will have the opportunity we had to live in a peaceful environment. But we were wrong.

    Our self-sustaining region was in 1957 made a self-governing part of Nigeria. We still retained control over our lives and contributed financially to the central treasury which relied largely on import and excise duties as well as charges on currency, posts and telegraphs, railways and shipping, and aviation. The regions continued to run their affairs as autonomous entities within the federation of Nigeria and enjoying common services of police and defence. The regions ran their own affairs competitively and cooperatively. Crude petroleum was discovered in Oloibiri (Bayelsa State) in the East but this did not make huge impact on the East which remained the Cinderella of the Nigerian family relations.

    As we progressed towards independence, the fierce competition for control of the centre began. The northern hegemony epitomized by the NPC in the centre was then aided by the Eastern subservience of the NCNC.  Then began the race to fill the posts being vacated by the British and to pack the ministries and parastatals with the ethnic cohorts of largely Easterners. Obafemi Awolowo who in all his political life had favoured strong regions appeared to have abandoned his position when he decided to challenge the NPC / NCNC chokehold on the centre by resigning as premier of the Western Region to go to the centre. With historical hindsight, he should have stayed in the West like his political enemy Ahmadu Bello stayed on in the North and sent his lieutenant, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to the centre as lame duck prime minister which he would have remained if Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello had maintained their federal principled posture as they did in the Lancaster pre-Independence conference of 1959. This wrong tactical move sealed the fate of the carefully negotiated agreement for the disparate regions to remain together. These were territories big enough to be separate countries. They entered into what has turned out into an unhappy marriage which the military forced unitary system of 1966 has worsened.

    Nevertheless, the free-for-all looting and the  crazy feeding frenzy on national treasury which  began in 1970 after the  civil war ended, has gotten worse; electricity power  distribution has been sold to people who knew nothing about how to generate and distribute electricity.

    How does one explain the fact that the sale of gas and crude oil, the main source of the country’s wealth goes unaudited for years? The various parastatals in the oil industry are run not with the aim to earn income and augment national income, but to consume whatever comes in from sales of crude oil and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Yet we complain that the country has no roads, no railways, no modern ports and airports. We have no hydro or any sort of efficient electric power.

    We have written and written that the dollar-guzzling petroleum refineries and petrochemical industries should be sold. We said it to Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan and we said it to Buhari and we say it again to Tinubu if he will listen. The money we are queuing up in various capitals of the world to borrow would have been unnecessary if we ran our oil industry profitably.

    Unfortunately, this will continue until the crude oil in our hands becomes unprofitable and unsaleable. Those running our oil industry should just compare ourselves with the following countries in OPEC namely UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela. Even with the American sabotage of Iran and Venezuela and war in Iraq, they still have superior infrastructure than Nigeria. The roads we used to travel on have all been washed away because of poor construction arising from corruption and kickbacks from those who constructed them.

    Nemesis has now caught up with us. The poor have left the villages to waylay us on the highways and rob and attack us in the cities. The poor are now demanding their own share of our common patrimony which a few have appropriated. The rich can no longer sleep because the poor are hungry, awake and angry.

    Before it is too late, we must go back to the negotiated constitutional agreement that led us to independence to avoid current and future head butting. I appeal to those who can make things happen for the better to support the current Tinubu government to make positive changes!

  • Odili and his 2007 odd perpetual order

    Odili and his 2007 odd perpetual order

    Odd Things do happen. Whenever they do, their strangeness is not lost on the people. It is an oddity for a man not bitten by a rabid dog to start barking like a dog. Humans do not walk on their heads, but with their legs. So, when you see a person walking on his head or on all fours, that is with his hands and legs, you do not need to be told that, that is strange.

    The strangeness of a thing confounds us. When 18 years ago, a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, granted a perpetual injunction restraining the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from arresting, detaining, investigating and prosecuting former Governor Peter Odili, many Nigerians were shocked to the marrows.

    They kept wondering why the court would stop an agency created by law from doing its job. It was strange. It was not only the order that was strange. It was also strange that such an application was filed. Granted that lawyers can bring any application, no matter how frivolous, but this one was in a class of its own.

    There is a limit to the filing of nonsensical matters. These are cases that can rouse the public to take to the streets to call for the heads of those involved, be they lawyers or litigants. Since many lawyers are ready to take any brief because of filthy lucre, they refrain from advising their clients to file certain matters.

    As long as the money is good, they promise their clients heaven and earth and in some cases, even assure them that they would see (euphemism for inducement) the judge and everything would go well (meaning that they would win). It was out of fear that Odili went to court to stop the EFCC from inviting him to give account of his eight-year tenure as governor of Rivers State (1999-2007).

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    It is standard practice elsewhere for elected office holders to give account of their stewardship at regular intervals. It is not so here. Our elected officers are above the law. It is taboo for them to render account. Who dares ask them to do that? They are easily irritated by such requests. For a reporter to ask governors, especially, certain questions can land him in trouble. The reporter may be abducted from his state of residence and taking to the governor’s state to face prosecution (or is it persecution?) for such temerity.

    Why did Odili act out of fear? Does he have something to hide? What is it? If he had done well, would he entertain any fear? By his action, Odili gambled wth the law and won. For 18 years, he played on our collective intelligence and we all looked on without asking questions. Why should any man whether a former governor or not go to court and seek to stop his arrest and investigation without any lawful reason?

    Odili did not state his right that will be breached if he is arrested and investigated. No man is above the law, no matter the post he once held or he is presently holding. There is equality before the law, but unfortunately, our society has made it to look as if we are not all equal before the law, with the way the rich and mighty are preferentially treated. How many ordinary Nigerians can bring that kind of Odili’s application and have their way in court?

    To start with, do they even have the enormous resources to file, through a senior advocate, such a vexatious application, which does not require a second thought before being thrown out by the court? Odili had his way for 18 years. Now, the EFCC has woken up from its slumber. It is ready to challenge Odili and his odd order.

    It must be put on record that Odili was aided by successive Rivers State administrations which have since 2007 frustrated every attempt to appeal the high court verdict. The last ploy by Rivers to frustrate the case failed at the Supreme Court in February. What were the appellants praying for? They wanted the apex court to quash the Appeal Court’s order granting EFCC leave to appeal the high court’s verdict out of time.

    Without mincing words, presiding Justice John Okoro told the appellants: “this is not the kind of appeal that we hear here”. Following the withdrawal of the motion, he directed the appellants back to the Appeal Court for the hearing of the ‘substantive appeal’. But did EFCC not contest Odili’s case at the high court? What was its position there? Did it support or oppose Odili’s case? If it opposed the case, did the court take the agency’s position into consideration before perpetually restraining it from arresting, detaining, investigating and prosecuting Odili?

    It will be interesting to see how this case pans out at the Appeal Court. Former elected officers should never be allowed to dictate their terms of engagement with the society after leaving office. They should rather be made to render account of their stewardship. By so doing, the society will be better off.

  • Her right-handed serve to glory: On Aishat Raji’s becoming

    Her right-handed serve to glory: On Aishat Raji’s becoming

    Aishat Raji enchants the tennis court. Not from electric chants or thunderous applause, but from the sheer astonishment of her being. Just 14, she saunters into the Games arena shorn of symmetry but with the sovereign gift of a single right hand that swings like a poet’s plume.

    Raji is a product of grit. Her left hand—once part of her whole body—got severed by the cold blade of tragedy in 2014. At the tender age of three, she was hurled from a storey building by her peers, in an act of childhood mischief that turned catastrophic. Consequently, her left arm was amputated.

    Through her ordeal, Raji was undeterred, scorning disability and dreaming of sports glory. Today, she is a multiple medalist from several tournaments – the latest being her silver medal from the South West Games 2025. Raji shone brilliantly as one of the brightest, most symbolic discoveries of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Southwest Alliance Games—BATSWAG—a sub-tournament of the Games mooted by Dr. Lanre Alfred.

    For the umpteenth time, Raji cast her soul into the game. With the lone fire of her right hand, she danced behind the bat, striking the ball through the stiff walls of limitation. In a tournament meant to scout for budding stars to enrich a regional talent pool, Raji showed up excellently, in the full spirit of the timeless saw that even broken wings may fly in the right wind and with the right heft. Raji dazzled the court as she defied the odds, clashing with more able-bodied rivals. She was, and remains, Nigerianness incarnate—tough, spirited, fragrant with promise.

    How do you write of such a girl and not be moved? How do you narrate her story without your pen trembling in awe? When she began training in 2021 at the Banana Table Tennis Club in Sango Ota under Coach Funmilayo Oyetayo—herself a torchbearer in Ogun’s tennis circle—it seemed an odd scene. A fragile girl, missing an arm, holding a racket as if it were a wand. But from those first uncertain strokes bloomed a masterpiece. Aishat trained with spunk and vigor. She committed her heart, body and spirit to be transformed. So doing, she hollered her name into the lobes of every tennis court, and the sport bent and paid a listening ear in affection. From the ValueJet Para-Tennis Open to the National Youth Festival in Delta, from Edo to Abuja, her path has been a trail of quiet, consistent brilliance. Silver, bronze, and now again silver at the South West Games 2025—all with one hand, and a heart filled with fire.

    What is sport, if not metaphor? And who better than Aishat to embody it? In her, Nigeria must see its own reflection—battered but not broken, denied but not defeated. She is the spirit that hawks wares at traffic lights with hope, the soul that laughs in spite of fuel queues and power outages, the stubborn sapling that sprouts even from cement cracks.

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    Yet, beyond the poetic reverence, subsists a profound call. The likes of Aishat must not be abandoned to the vagaries of grit and personal sacrifice. Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, her home soil’s steward, must rise to meet this hour. As Ogun State prepares to host the National Sports Festival in a few weeks, what better ambassador for that grand convergence than Aishat Raji? Why not lift her as a flame to light the path for other talents buried in Nigeria’s margins? To lift her is not charity—it is national investment.

    To celebrate her is to shift the spotlight from the salacious glare of reality shows like Big Brother Naija—a programme that rewards vulgar exhibitionism with cash prizes and brand endorsements—to an. embodiment of true substance. Nigeria must graduate from glamorizing mediocrity to venerating merit. If we must celebrate our youth, let us celebrate those who break limits, not those who flaunt decadence.

    The South West Games 2025 has done what many ministries and agencies have failed to do—it scouted, staged, and spotlighted the future. It did not just offer medals; it offered meaning. In a country where youths are increasingly seduced by narcotics, conscripted into cults, or disillusioned into silence, such tournaments are sanctuaries. They take young people off the streets and place them on podiums. They redirect rage into rhythm, despair into discipline. It is sports, yes—but it is also soulcraft.

    Aishat Raji reminds us of another aching truth—the shameful neglect of para-athletes and persons with disabilities in our sporting ecosystem. At the 2024 Olympics, Nigeria’s paralympic contingent was once again the victim of governmental amnesia. They faced poor preparation, inadequate funding, logistical nightmares, and the psychological bruises of being treated as afterthoughts. And yet, they returned with dignity. How long shall this travesty endure? When will our leaders realize that a nation is only as noble as the way it treats its vulnerable? Aishat’s rise should provoke policy. She is not just a story to be told—she is a strategy to be followed.

    Talent is universal, but opportunity is not. And it is here that institutions like the National Sports Commission, the Southwest Development Commission, and private stakeholders must lean in. Tournaments like BATSWAG and its parent, the South West Games, should not be fleeting glories—they must become annual rites, sustained by public-private partnerships, protected from the corrosion of politics, and rooted in communities.

    But even this is not enough. For sports, as this writer has long maintained, is but a momentary euphoria. Its value is fleeting, like carnival glitter or New Year fireworks. Today’s gold medalist is tomorrow’s forgotten name, nursing injuries in silence or trading glory for survival. The state must therefore pair sports development with long-term empowerment. Aishat Raji, for all her promise on the court, must also be mentored off the pitch. Her brilliance must be backed with quality education, entrepreneurial training, digital skills, emotional intelligence, and exposure to global citizenship. She must be prepared for the day when her body can no longer obey the racket. She must have more than medals—she must have mastery.

    Because the tragedy of sports is not in losing a match. It is in raising a star only to abandon them in the twilight of their talent. Nigeria has done this too many times. We must not do it again.

    One day, Aishat Raji will stand before the world, perhaps at Wimbledon or the Paralympics, not as a token of pity, but as a titan of purpose. She will swing that bat with the grace of a gazelle and the grit of a soldier. The world will gasp. Commentators will scramble to pronounce her name correctly. And behind that moment will be this beginning—this humble path from Crescent International High School in Sango Ota, this sacred ground where Coach Funmilayo Oyetayo taught a one-handed girl to wield dreams like a sword.

    And when that moment comes, may Nigeria not be found absent.

    May we remember that in 2025, we were gifted a sign. That greatness does not always walk on two feet or hold with two hands. Sometimes, greatness limps, stumbles, learns, and swings with a single, stubborn arm. That arm belongs to Aishat Raji. That arm is Nigeria. Shall we hold it up?

  • Monarchs, murder and ethnic baiting

    Monarchs, murder and ethnic baiting

    There’s no question that whatever happens in Kano often has implications for the way Nigeria’s unending game of thrones play out. Five years ago when then Governor Abdullahi Ganduje dethroned Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as Emir, he thought he had consigned him to history’s dustbin.

    He probably expected the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to retain power in the state and sustain his legacy. Instead, the reverse happened. The New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) led by his one-time leader, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, seized power and the new governor Abba Yusuf immediately took a sledgehammer – literally and figuratively – to everything his predecessor held dear.

    He tore down multi-billion naira properties – public and privately owned – for the flimsiest of the reasons, only to have the courts slam billion naira penalties on the state for his recklessness. But monuments that became rubble were nothing; the real prize was scrapping five emirates that had been created at Sanusi’s dethronement.

    To rub salt on injury, the ogre that Ganduje thought he had banished into some anonymous corner of Nasarawa State would soon be strutting with all his peacock glory within the precincts of the Kano palace. While Sanusi accepted his removal fatalistically, his replacement, Aminu Bayero, has put up a legal fight that has created the surreal situation of one city with two kings vying for supremacy.

    In restoring the former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor to his role as monarch, the state government blithely ignored an existing court injunction. Much was made of whether the ruling was given by a judge on vacation, who supposedly gave an order from outside the country. That matter is still tied up at some stage of a serpentine judicial process.

    The state government has protested vehemently that it had power under the constitution to appoint traditional rulers. Not many dispute that. However, from day one there had been suspicion that agents of the Federal Government or powerful Kano politicians now opening out of Abuja were invested in frustrating whatever the Yusuf administration was trying to accomplish.

    Hours after his unceremonious ouster, Bayero came back to Kano aboard an aircraft allegedly provided by National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu. He was said to have been led to an annex palace by an escort of troops. The claims soon had a furious Ribadu threatening legal action against those who made them.

    Despite the ferocity of his denials, elements of Kwakwanso’s NNPP and the state government swear that the Presidency and especially Ganduje are determined not to see Sanusi restored as emir. Not much proof is provided beyond the usual peculiar interpretation of judicial rulings and interventions by security agencies.

    Shortly before last week’s Eid-el-Fitr celebrations, the state police command imposed a ban on Durbars and other processions ostensibly because of security threats. Such religious holidays are occasion for the emir to parade through the streets in all his finery. But now there were two monarchs laying claim to the throne, with the very real prospect of the competing marches turning into a test of strength and popularity.

    While Bayero has largely stayed out of sight, Sanusi has carried on business as usual. On his way home after the Eid prayers at the popular Kofar Mata Eid prayer ground in Kano on Sunday; violence broke out within his entourage. By the time the dust settled, one Surajo Rabiu, a vigilante had been stabbed to death, while another sustained injuries.

    The police invited a senior title holder, Wada Isyaku, the Shamakin Kano, for questioning over defiance of the ban on durbar-related activities. What would make headline news was when a similar invitation was extended to Emir Sanusi requiring him to come for questioning in Abuja.

    A vortex of criticism was automatically unleashed with many opposition figures accusing the police of being misused to oppress the monarch because of political loyalty. It was clear the criticism hit a raw nerve because shortly before the emir was to keep the Tuesday appointment, the invitation was withdrawn. The Police issued a defensive statement explaining their action was devoid of any political undertone.

    What many critics found objectionable was having the traditional ruler travel to Abuja when his account about the violence could very easily have been obtained by the state command. For others, such an invitation should never have been issued given his eminence.

    The fact is the police and other security agencies out of overzealousness blunder from time to time. The Sanusi summons is a reminiscence of the Kogi State government and police command banning all rallies simply because Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan announced she was visiting her hometown. But by intervening the way they did, they opened the door for her defiance, reinforced her image as a victim and thoroughly embarrassed themselves when her full house rally held without a hitch.

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    The Police in Abuja may have deescalated tensions, but they emerged from this episode not looking good. They look like they can be very easily pushed around or buckle very easily in the face of a little heat.

    But that said, the impression must never be created that certain persons cannot be held to account when crimes have been committed because of their lofty positions in society. Let’s not forget that someone died during a procession that the police had banned.

    There’s no evidence anyone went to court to challenge their right to hold such events. Having seemingly acquiesced to not holding them, whoever authorised it surely has questions to answer. Even if there had been no death or violence, questions should be asked as to why one party obeyed and the other defied the order.

    But it isn’t only the police who have emerged from this not smelling of roses. Some political leaders in their desperate need to criticise something have gone overboard. Take former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, for example.

    It is common knowledge that Sanusi and El-Rufai are very close pals. When the emir was languishing in his internal exile home in Nasarawa, it was the former Kaduna governor who travelled there by road to ferry him home. So, it is only natural that he would take more than passing interest in what looked like fresh trouble for his friend.

    That perhaps explains why on April 6, 2025 he posted on his X handle an article purportedly written by one “Chuks Emeka” which trashed what the author referred to as the “Yoruba-led federal government’s” complicity in the police’s actions against Sanusi.

    Questions have been asked as to whether “Chuks Emeka” exists anywhere other than in the imagination of the former governor – the suggestion being that this was just a convenient pen name to be blamed for unwholesome opinions. By referring to the “Yoruba-led federal government”, the supposed writer was engaging in the most despicable form of ethnic baiting. By ventilating his toxic views on his handle, El-Rufai was identifying with the same condemnable hate.

    Another quote from the supposed “Emeka” piece reads suspiciously like something the 2025 vintage of the former Kaduna governor could have said or written. “And it is being carried out under a Yoruba presidency, one that many of us across the country supported out of hope for national healing, restructuring, and competence.”

    It is amazing what bitterness can do to a man who would love to be seen as enlightened. It is especially sad that a politician who clearly aspires to one day lead a nation cannot see how he’s diminished by launching low attacks against an important ethnic group within the whole.

    Perhaps El-Rufai and the “author” whose piece he admired so much that he had to reproduce it on his handle need to be reminded that even in the Southwest, Bola Tinubu didn’t win 100% of votes in his home region. Out of a total of 4, 350,987 votes cast at the presidential election in the zone, he received 2, 542, 979 – about 58.4%.

    In the Northwest where a total 6, 468, 492 votes were cast, he received 2, 652, 235 – about 41%. This was better than Abubakar Atiku’s 33.9%. The president actually got 30 percent of his total votes from this zone.

    He became president by after meeting constitutional requirements and picking up a pan-Nigerian mandate. Referring to his administration as the “Yoruba-led presidency” would be as fair as calling Muhammadu Buhari’s regime the “Fulani presidency.” No amount of bile should make one descend that low.

  • Audit NNPC 2022, 2023; Gridlock; 18m

    Audit NNPC 2022, 2023; Gridlock; 18m

    Mismanagement is a word deliberately misapplied by nefarious Nigerians to cover up deliberate fiscal failures and the premeditated financial operational calculated chaos aka systemic corruption when a Nigerian politician or appointee of a government, state or LGA in a Ministry, Department or Agency, MDA, or preferable Ministry, Agency or Department, MAD, knowingly corruptly decimates our resources. Such acts cumulatively amount to losses in the trillions of naira depriving the citizenry including our 18million out of school children and their families through a deliberate mismanagement strategy.

    The funds are corruptly removed from servicing our suffering poor, making them poorer. The theft or mismanagement particularly reduces the quality and quantity of facilities available to the needy. Such funds could have built a conducive learning environment for all including Nigeria’s 18million out-of-school youth denied quality education-a Nigerian birth right required for personal empowerment and Nigeria’s survival.

    Why do powerful Nigerians callously steal so much from poor Nigerians as to cause pain, depression, deprivation, disease and death? Why do most Nigerians in authority get so greedy, depriving the needy?

    The effects of mismanaging the MDA/MADs electricity bill and pension fund payments monthly As-And-When-Due, AAWD, are two burning examples of the suffering caused when leaders from governors etc. fail to pay legitimate  service charges AAWD, monthly, but prefer to ‘mismanage’ or corruptly ‘disappear’ the funds for self-serving corruption-driven projects with zero outcomes; or steal the money outright only to blame innocent pythons, other snakes, rats and cockroaches for eating the money meant for hospitals and schools for the 18m out of school youth and others.

    EFCC has accused an ex-governor that he so loved his own children, to the detriment of the youth, and that he took government money to pay his own children’s school fees, in dollars, for years in advance. Did he include his infants in primary school zero, or some unborn babies? The governor ignored his self-imposed responsibility for educating millions of Nigerian children with that money. If confirmed, what mismanagement/corruption!! Calculate the loss and suffering among Nigerian children made ignorant by absence of that money. Did someone die? Perhaps, because money does save the uncertain lives of mothers and their unborn babies today, instead of being stolen to guarantee the educational future of only the governor’s offspring.

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    Most leaders across MDA/MADs have similarly self-enriched and failed Nigeria. Too few managed without stealing.   Nigeria’s vast resources would have carried Nigeria higher up the ladder of development measured by the UNs MDGs and SDGs, the Transparency International Index, Corruption Perception Index etc. Foreigners since forever, release petty funds to fill the huge financial hole dug by pathologically fraudulent MAD ‘leaders’.   

    Of course, the developed world powers ensure Africa remains hungry ‘consumptive’ and ‘developing’, servile and dependent on the West. However, unasked, most African political elite under-develop their countries, and Nigeria leads by massively mismanaged Nigerian MDAs. Foreigners hardly mentioned Africa. That shows even Giant of Africa Nigeria’s ‘receivership status’ no matter how flamboyant Nigerian social functions are. We do know that foreign powers, white and yellow, snigger at us as we collect loans to steal to save in their banks. However, it is unlikely that the foreigners will take out a governor who refuses to steal or be corrupt and instead develops his state with every kobo of state income from IGR and FAAC allocations. So, what is our Nigerian leadership’s motivation to constantly steal from our children? 

    The ‘Great Lagos Traffic Jam’ of Wednesday April 2 precipitated by the ill-timed closure of one bridge is typical MDA mismanagement/corruption with misplaced power of governance. It demonstrates numerous costly, multi-billion naira loss lessons. Firstly, we see ‘Cause and Consequence of actions’. Here we clearly see cause i.e. closure, and consequence i.e. citywide 10-hour gridlock costing billions from shop closures, vendors losses from millions of office workers and trapped transporters. Secondly, we see a ‘Ministry of Road Arrogant Power’-, not a ‘Ministry of Road Service’.  Thirdly, we see no ‘Time and Motion’ studies, essential to anticipate impact and prevent ‘Action -Reaction’ traffic catastrophes.

    Disgracefully, such traffic catastrophic failures are commonplace. We have experienced it, without apology or sympathy or ministerial or press outrage, on the ‘Lagos Ibadan non-expressway’ for 15 years, ameliorated only in the last few months. Lagos, welcome to our ‘Traffic Suffering Club’ which was punished by the contractors and ignored for 15 years by the Ministry of Works when it took 6-12 hours to traverse.

    The Auditor General’s 2021 Audit revelations of NNPC Plc reveal the DISGUSTING BUT EXPECTED ‘MEGA-MISMANAGEMENT’ AKA CORRUPTION ‘DISCOVERED’ IN THE NNPC Plc. AUDIT DEPRIVING OUR 18M OUT OF SCHOOL YOUTH OF THEIR FUTURE . How dare MDA/MADs AUDIT be so illegally late? We will only see the end of multi-billion diversions when we have immediate audits and criminal charges. All federal and state funds earned should go to rescuing citizens and strengthening our murdered currency value. The federal government should order immediate simultaneous 2022 and 2023 audits and introduce an in year Quarterly Auditor-General Report to prevent MEGA FRAUD AND MISMANAGEMENT. We need such audits to force our MDA leaders to STOP STEALING THE FUTURE.

    AN 18M WEAK YOUTH ARMY, BRAIN STARVED, WILL MUTATE INTO A DESTRUCTIVE STRONG ADULT ARMY OF DESTRUCTION AND FUTURE EVIL. ANTI-CORRUPTION AUDITS ARE CHEAPER THAN FIGHTING AFTER MISMANAGEMENT CORRUPTION HAS TAKEN PLACE.        

  • Again, pump-pricing

    Again, pump-pricing

    Is rising fuel pump-pricing, following the bungling of the crude-for-Naira policy, to blame for the change in the NNPC Ltd Board?  Who knows?  More on that presently.

    Meanwhile, the transactional temper, in today’s Nigeria, is in a sickly class, all its own.

    Every presidential hire is an angel to be toasted and serenaded.  Every presidential fire is devil to be mocked and scorned, with suggestive tales of alleged sleaze to boot.

    But don’t be deceived.  While holding no brief for any fired officer, this hot-and-cold is often cynical repudiation of a hitherto flowing tap now dried up!  A dried-up tap is seldom angelic to perched throats!  Besides, buzzing bees must find new nectar!

    That has pretty much summed up reactions to the change at NNPC Ltd. 

    The most significant, on the operational plane, is Mele Kyari, NNPC Ltd boss since 2019, all through its transition from a public corporation to a more commercially driven oil trading firm, yielding place to Bayo Ojulari, a Shell Nigeria veteran, with pretty much intimidating credentials.

    Well, Chief Pius Akinyelure, President Bola Tinubu’s boss during their days at Mobil Nigeria, also gave way to Ahmadu Musa Kida, as new NNPC Ltd board chair.

    Ethnic balancers and ace pundits are already foaming in the mouth.  One — prematurely? — growled that Ojulari was yet another Yoruba from the South West — before realizing Ojulari was indeed a Yoruba northerner from Kwara!

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    Other Yoruba — no less clannish in their thinking — would scoff at why the President would trade Akinyelure, his “kinsman”, for Kada from Borno State.

    Pray, what have all these got to do with cognate experience and job competence?But still talking “tribes”: how can Kyari (ex-NNPC),  Akinyelure (ex-Mobil), Ojulari (ex-Shell) and Kada (ex-Total) belong to any tribe but oil and gas? 

    Wasteful and needless voyages, yet perfectly Nigerian!

    Still, no matter what anyone says, NNPC Ltd “original”, Kyari, made his mark since his appointment as GMD, helping to drive NNPC Ltd to its present state. 

    That the company has partly reclaimed three of its four comatose refineries — Port Harcourt 1 and 2, and Warri; with Kaduna still a work-in-process — is ode to grim determination to succeed, even with loud naysayers sizzling with haughty cynicism.

    That doesn’t, however, mean NNPC Ltd is no longer a laggard compared to its global state-owned peers: Aramco (Saudi Arabia), Petrobras (Brazil) Petronas (Malaysia), KPC — Kuwait Petroleum Corporation — (Kuwait), etc.  But under Kyari, it has made distinct progress and the prospects seem quite better.

    Why the board dissolution and Kyari’s ouster, then?  For starters, the man is 60 and his term may have expired.  In any case, the President has the leeway to hire and fire.

    But if indeed it had to do with crude-for-Naira, then it would show a government very much aware of its vulnerabilities, too perilously close to midterm! 

    Despite the elite lullaby of “bold and courageous” showered on the President and his team, the masses are still pretty much bewildered at the post-subsidy direction of the economy, as it concerns their welfare, nay economic survival. 

    Fuel pump-pricing, hitherto trending down, bought the administration some legitimacy, even if grudging, on its tough reforms. 

    Those reforms are driven by harsh neo-liberal methods — not to punish anyone, to be sure, but — to re-set eons of economic disequilibrium.  That comes with pains.

    Still, that method dots on the market’s upper crust — the investing patricians — but thinks little of the plebs that grind and grill in the market’s crucible base.  It’s however convinced that having sated investor greed, benefits would trickle down to the plebs.

    So far, that has not quite happened — in any case, not with thundering collapse of prices, sending the hoi polloi into sheer ecstasy! Right now, there are just the elite, from their crystal balls, telling the masses good times are coming.  Sweet aroma seldom calms a hungry, rumbling tummy!

    Still, the crude-for-Naira policy did open a tantalizing window, making the masses to believe again.  It caused fuel pump prices, thanks to local refining, to trend down — until Dangote Petroleum Refinery (DPR) ended that fleeting paradise, with torrid news.

    DPR warned that it might hike its products’ pricing — which it did — unless the Federal Government kept its end of the bargain, on the crude-for-Naira policy.  Now, pricing is trending up — from mid-N800-a-litre — back to N925-a-litre at the very lowest. 

    If care isn’t taken, it would spiral up to over N1, 000-a-litre, the price at the earliest days of subsidy removal, which sent inflation soaring, burned the pocket and sparked anger. 

    Whodunnit — such that after six months of crude-for-Naira, no new deal?

    If it was NNPC Ltd, it just got its comeuppance.  It has a new board and management team.  Both have their jobs cut out for them.  They had better get cracking!

    The Federal Ministry of Finance-mandated technical team of experts, chaired by Zach Adedeji, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) boss?  DPR roused the Adedeji team to a fresh commitment.  But so far, still no new deal as at the March 31 expiry of the old one.

    That culpable negligence — if indeed, the fault is from there — should not go un-conked.  Petrol is critical to the economy; and every administration official must know the Tinubu Presidency will float or sink, at its careful management.  Petrol’s cost-push inflationary danger is all too glaring!

    The market regulators, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA)?  Might NMDPRA be grappling — as not a few have suggested — with the futures market?

    Does Nigeria simply not produce enough to guarantee the 385, 000 barrels-a-day to feed local refiners, given that a large chunk of crude produced by NNPC Ltd is already sold or battered in advance? 

    If that’s the case, the NMDPRA should come clean.  The public have a right to know.

    Waffling over the crude-or-Naira policy — and its putative collapse — appears the greatest threat yet to the government’s electoral survival.  Should prices start climbing again, the Tinubu Presidency might just be cooked!

    It may appear just mid-term — the second anniversary is May 29.  But the government has barely one year in its furious race against time to smash inflation, and win over hurting pockets, for re-election in 2027.  It must re-fix the crude-for-Naira policy before it’s too late.

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the populist but empty Peter Obi are jaded policy souls.  But the administration must never underestimate their cynical capacity for mischief.  President Tinubu can shut both up only with a winning policy.

    Meanwhile, everyone should be worried — NMDPRA especially — that DPR is pumping fresh muscles, by the day, to crash and hike pump pricing. 

    Is there the oligopoly of cement winking, so early at the rebirth of local oil refining? Will local refining yet be captive to a greedy few, that may well sell petrol at prices the cartel well pleases?

    NMDPRA had better act while it still can.  Replicating cement in local crude refining would be the virtual death of the economy — with stagnated incomes and thumping costs!